1. USEFUL PHRASE IN RUSSIAN
Listen and repeat the following sentence:- I WILL BE READING THE NOVEL, BUT I WILL NOT FINISH READING IT- Я БУДУ ЧИТАТЬ РОМАН, НО НЕ ПРОЧИТАЮ ЕГО (ya bu-du chi-tat' ro-man, no nye pra-chi-ta-yu ye-vo)

The verbal aspect and the future of Russian verbs: In lesson 11 you have seen the verbal aspect, that is, you have learnt the imperfective and perfective verbs. Now we are going to see how to form the future of these verbs.During the lesson you will see the concept of "finished action" (=perfective) and "action in progress" (=imperfective).

- Маша, today I'm not going to work. And you? Do you work today?- I don't work either. I'll be home. And what will you do?- I'll be cooking all morning because I'm going to have guests. By the way, Michel is going to help me!- What a good boy! And in the evening? What are you going to do?- Nothing. I think that we will watch tv. And you?

- Today I'll be reading a novel all morning. Afterwards I'll have lunch and again, I'll read the novel.

- ¿Will you finish reading the novel today? If so, call me and we'll think what we're going to do in the evening.- Alright, I'm going to finish reading the novel and I'll call you.

- Tomorrow is Sunday. What are you going to do?- Tomorrow I'm going to do my homework.- ¿Will you be doing your homework all Sunday?- Of course not. Today in the evening I'm going to read the text, and tomorrow in the morning I'll do the exercise.- I think that I'll do everything today. tomorrow I'm going to be resting all day long.- Well done! You always do your homework fast.- I have an idea! I'm going to do your homework and afterwards we'll rest together.- No. I'm going to do everything myself.- Alright. will you call me tomorrow evening? I'll be watching television.- Yes, I'll call. See you tomorrow.

- Michael, tomorrow is your birthday. We're going to be cooking all morning because... we will have a small party!

- Wow, thanks Lena! I'm going to help!- Good, then you will cook the soup and I will cook the meat. And you Masha?- I'm going to do the dessert. Everything is going to be very yummy.- And what will we do in the evening? Are we going to watch tv at home?- No, better we're going to watch a movie at the cinema, ok?- Good idea.

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4. RUSSIAN GRAMMAR
Read the following grammar explanations for this lesson:

The future tense in Russian

Step 1: The future of the very "to be" (быть)

As you have seen in lesson 11, for each English verb, in Russian exist two verbs: a perfective and an imperfective one. Now we will see how to form their future tense.

We will start with the future of the verb "to be" (бить).

The verb быть is used as an auxiliary verb in order to form the future. It has a similar function as "will" in English.

RUSSIAN

Я будуТы будешьОн / она будетМы будемВы бyдетеОни будут

ENGLISH

I will beYou will beHe / she will beWe will beYou will beThey will be

Step 2: How form the future tense in Russian In lesson 11 you have seen that the past tense in Russian is formed the same way for both imperfective and perfective verbs. In the case of the future tense, we have these two ways.

This is the way to form the future tense in Russian of imperfective verbs:verb быть conjugated in the future tense + infinitive of the imperfective verb*as you will see below, this is similar to the way to form the future tense in English.This is the way to form the future tense in Russian of perfective verbs:stem of the perfective verb + endings of the present tense*as you will see below, this future looks like the present tense of imperfective verbs. It is important not to mix both tenses.We can now see an example with the verb "to read". Pay attention: for the verb "to read" there are two Russian verbs:читать (imperfective) and прочитать (perfective). We will see below how to form the the future tense for each verb:

I will read / I'm going to read You will read / You're going to read He / she will read / He's going to read We will read / We're going to read You will read / You're going to read They will read /They're going to read

THE PERFECTIVE VERBS DO NOT EXIST IN THE PRESENT TENSEThis is a DIFFICULT CONCEPT, but it is important to understand it. We will explain it with an example:In English we can use the construction "finish + verb + -ing" in the present, but with a future meaning:- Today I finish reading the book - In 5 minutes I finish cooking - Tomorrow I finish painting - Something similar happens with the perfective verbs in Russian: You
already know that perfective verbs convey the idea of "finished
action". The future of these verbs are formed adding the endings of the
present, but (as it happens with "finish + verb + -ing) they have a
future meaning.

In other words: The verbs that form the future with the endings of the present (that is, the perfective verbs) don't have any "present tense". They can only be used to express past and future.

Step 3: Examples of Russian verbs in the future tenseHave a look at these examples to understand better the use of imperfective and perfective Russian verbs in the future.

Russian verbs give more information that English verbs. That's why below you will see three columns:- a sentence in Russian- the English translation- a longer translation where you can see the extra information given by the Russian verb.

Russian

English translation

Information given by the Russian verb, not given by the English one

Завтра я буду готовить супготовить (imperfective): to cook

"Tomorrow I'm going to cook soup" or "Tomorrow I'll cook soup"

Tomorrow I will be performing the action of cooking soup, but I don't say if I'll finish cooking it or not.

Завтра я приготовлю супприготовить (perfective): to cook

"Tomorrow I'm going to cook soup" or "Tomorrow I'll cook soup"

Tomorrow I will cook soup and I will finish cooking it.

Иван будет читать романчитать (imperfective): to read

"Ivan is going to read a novel" or "Ivan will read a novel"

Ivan will be performing the action of reading a novel, but doesn't tell if he'll finish it or not.

Иван прочитает романпрочитать (perfective): to read

"Ivan is going to read a novel" or "Ivan will read a novel"

Ivan is going to be reading the novel until he finishes it.

Сегодня мы будем делать всёделать (imperfective): to do

"Today we're going to do everything" or "Today we'll do everything"

Today we are going to be performing the action of doing everything, but we don't say if we'll finish or not.

Сегодня мы всё сделаемсделать (perfective): to do

"Today we're going to do everything" or "Today we'll do everything"

Today we will be doing everything until we finish it.

HAVE YOU NOTICED IT? When you read the English translation (that is, the second column in the examples above) you can't tell if the Russian sentence used a perfective or an imperfective verb. In real situations you won't see a sentence alone: you will see a whole context to help you know if the action finished or not.
But as you can see, Russian verbs give more information that English verbs.